The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

Max interviews Vit Jedlicka, president and founder of Liberland, which is a project to create a new country on unclaimed territory between Serbia and Croatia.Liberland was founded as a free republic with the goal of building new institutions to safeguard personal and economic freedom in a way that isn’t being done in any country including the western democracies today.We discuss the legal and organizational challenges in pursuing this project, as well as the technologies - blockchain, mobile communication, and geo-location - that make this possible.Also present is Thomas Walls, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Liberland.Localmaxradio.com/89 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Dive into the intriguing concepts of Occam's and Hanlon's Razors, exploring their significance in AI and human reasoning. Discover the challenges of understanding consumer behavior and the pitfalls of overfitting in data analysis. Discuss the misconceptions around digital privacy and the ethics of data use, questioning whether our smartphones are truly eavesdropping. The hosts also tackle the complexities of conspiracy theories, urging listeners to consider simpler explanations. Plus, enjoy a discussion on reimagining national anthems through modern pop culture.

This week’s guest is Mark Ryan, author of the upcoming book Deep Learning with Structured Data.We cover:- How machine learning has come to dominate Artificial Intelligence over the last few decades- How the deep learning, which can solve problems like natural language understanding and image recognition - is becoming more and more practical, and gets results even in more traditional datasets- How to learn to become a machine learning engineer through online tutorials and frameworks- Where this is going in the future, and discussions on superintelligence and the technological singularityGet 40% off the book with the discount code podlocalmax19, at Manning Publishing: https://www.manning.com/books/deep-learning-with-structured-datalocalmaxradio.com/87 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

On the news that Amazon wants to put Alexa into wearable devices, we discuss the idea that the focus in consumer tech has moved to sound, including voice controls, augmented reality, and podcasting.Max gives an update on the Betaworks Hearing Voices conference that highlighted the latest tech, demos, and ideas in this area.Plus - we follow up on previous episodes, including Aaron’s predictions on the Metaculus engine, and how Max missed a subway stop because he was reading Reddit.localmaxradio.com/86 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Part 2 of Max's discussion with Anthony Aguirre, cofounder of the Metaculus prediction engine. Topics include:- The difference between making short term, long term, and theoretical predictions- The human mind and human emotions - as imperfect as they are - being world's best tool for prediction making- Calibrating your probabilities, on an individual and group level- Predictions of humor-detecting AI, waking up after being cryogenically frozen, and political developmentslocalmaxradio.com/85metaculus.com Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Max talks to cosmologist Anthony Aguirre about the fundamental nature of the universe, with the following questions:Is the Space Discrete or Continuous?How does our physics differ from Virtual Reality, or the model we have in our brain?What is Fourier space?What does it mean that the universe is made of information?Is there a fundamental bit?In most cases, things aren’t what they seem! Check out Anthony’s Book on the subject: Cosmological Koans.localmaxradio.com/84 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Max follows through on his promise to take down the big lie about Bitcoin - that it’ll consume all our energy and destroy the earth. He goes through the simple math that shows this won’t be a problem, and talk about how Bitcoin can encourage better energy technology.Jack Ma and Elon Musk were recently in a debate/discussion about AI in Shanghai, and they are in such opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their philosophical outlook! We talk about what they said, and where they agreed.Finally, Max starts by responding to Gab CEO Andrew Torba, who threw shade at Foursquare in a recent blogpost.localmaxradio.com/83 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Henry Abramson, Dean of Touro College in Brooklyn, tells us about how he took his Jewish History Lectures online. We talk a bit about the historical shift in communication, information, and education that the internet and YouTube represent and his dealings with feedback, trolling, and algorithms.Finally, we learn about his biggest influences, and some specific lectures and why the internet has gravitated towards them.localmaxradio.com/82henryabramson.com Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Ever feel like there’s something wrong with all the news and information you consume, even when you get it from professional scientists and doctors?We tackle the reproducibility crisis in science today starting with taking a look at some mudslinging between high profile online academics Andrew Gelman and Cass Sunstein.We also talk about the probable over-publishing of studies in stock market prediction and elsewhere, and scientists reading too much when interpreting results to fit their narrative and ideology.localmaxradio.com/81 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

The recent sale of the creative and niche site Tumblr to Wordpress from Verizon shows an over 99% loss of value from it’s original sale to Yahoo in 2013. We look back at the phases Tumblr’s been through, and how this fits with the larger social, technological, and business trends. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe